Lee Maelzer is a London based artist, she was born and studied in London. She left school at 13 and went to study or at Saint Martin’s College of Art and design, gaining a BA Hons first class later at the Royal Academy of arts and she obtained her Masters in Fine Art. Since 2005 she has exhibited in nine solo exhibitions and widely in Group exhibitions including one at Christy’s London. She also curated 7 exhibitions in London.
She practices as a painter but also explores collage and sculpture and videos. Her paintings are large as she likes them to take up large spaces. The uses of white in her work reflects a certain morbidity, abandonment but also a sense of light. When painting she likes to use a ground like greens or greys to take away the whiteness of the board before starting her piece and has a couple of pieces on the go at once , some of how work takes one to three months to complete.
In her childhood up to the age of 8 she spent time in Vancouver and during this time she went through a lot of hardship which has made her into the artist she is today.
She talked about how she likes to take photos for reference but only used for a short time the rest is from her imagination and in some cases dreams that she has had. She also only likes to use pictures she’s taken herself which is something I understand as it is always good to have your own perspective of a place or a person.
In her young adult life, she talks with period why she went through six years of addiction drugs and alcohol which made her work suffer but she bounced back afterwards. one of her residences was in Mexico where she saw lots of derelict buildings because of war not necessarily decay. She advised that people should do residencies if given the chance as it is a unique experience.
She is inspired by artists such as Goya, van Eyck contemporary artists such as Pia Hue, William Kentridge and Diane Abers.
as we’re restricted right now with covid, Lee is working at a small scale doing paintings taken from Facebook adverts why people are selling my items on marketplace this allows her to show modern life as the seller is using their home to photograph in an the scene is already set of their everyday life. due to the size of the large scale pieces she spoke about painting on panels rather than one large piece so that she can get through doorways and transport it easily.
she seems to feature sinks a lot in her work which could have a hidden meaning to her childhood.
She had opportunities to visit abandoned places like Hackney hospital where she was able to take photos to use as references she likes her paintings have a texture and has been known to add cotton then pull off to give line texture to her painting.
Lee has a large studio which she shares with another artist. Hopefully one day I’ll be able to have my own studio too and it would be good to have some company as you can go a bit crazy when you’re on your own.
